zero

Etymology

From French zéro, from Italian zero, from Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “nothing, cipher”), itself calqued from Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “void, nothingness”). Doublet of cipher and chiffre.

num

1. The cardinal number occurring before one and that denotes no quantity or amount at all, represented in Arabic numerals as 0.
   The conductor waited until the passenger count was zero.
   A cheque for zero dollars and zero cents crashed the computers on division by zero.

noun

1. The numeric symbol that represents the cardinal number zero.
   In unary and k-adic notation in general, zero is the empty string.
   Write 0.0 to indicate a floating point number rather than the integer zero.
   The zero sign in American Sign Language is considered rude in some cultures.
2. The digit 0 in the decimal, binary, and all other base numbering systems.
   One million has six zeroes.
3. (informal, uncountable) Nothing, or none.
   The shipment was lost, so they had zero in stock.
   He knows zero about humour.
   In the end, all of our hard work amounted to zero.
4. The value of a magnitude corresponding to the cardinal number zero.
   The electromagnetic field does not drop all of the way to zero before a reversal.
   Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return. 2013-07-06, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68
5. The point on a scale at which numbering or measurement originates.
   The temperature outside is ten degrees below zero.
6. (mathematics) A value of the independent variables of a function, for which the function is equal to zero.
   The zeroes of a polynomial are its roots by the fundamental theorem of algebra.
   The derivative of a continuous, differentiable function that twice crosses the axis must have a zero.
   The nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function may all lie on the critical line.
7. (mathematics, algebra) The additive identity element of a monoid or greater algebraic structure, particularly a group or ring.
   Since a commutative zero is the inverse of any additive identity, it must be unique when it exists.
   The zero (of a ring or field) has the property that the product of the zero with any element yields the zero.
   The quotient ring over a maximal ideal is a field with a single zero element.
8. (slang) A person of little or no importance.
   They rudely treated him like a zero.
9. (military) A Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a long range fighter aircraft operated by the Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945.
   The visit to Townsville was filled with nostalgia for me. I remembered very well staying there on June 8, 1942. I shared a room with a brave and friendly officer, Colonel Francis Stevens. Early the next morning we flew to Port Moresby in New Guinea, and from there we took off in separate planes. Colonel Stevens never returned from that flight; his plane was shot down by a Japanese Zero. 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The New Age of Regionalism”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 361
10. A setting of calibrated instruments such as a firearm, corresponding to a zero value.
11. (finance) A security which has a zero coupon (paying no periodic interest).
    The takeovers were financed by issuing zeroes.

adj

1. (informal) No, not any.
   She showed zero respect.
   You have to salute Gerrard's bravery in accepting the challenge of trying to turn Rangers around given that he has zero experience in senior management. Immortality beckons if he does it. May 4, 2018, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport
2. (meteorology) Of a cloud ceiling, limiting vision to 50 feet (15 meters) or less.
3. (meteorology) Of horizontal visibility, limited to 165 feet (50.3 meters) or less.
4. (linguistics) Present at an abstract level, but not realized in the surface form.
   The stem of "kobieta" with the zero ending is "kobiet".

verb

1. (transitive) To set some amount to be zero.
   They tried to zero the budget by the end of the quarter.
   The bill was over $400, but the server zeroed it out as a gesture of gratitude.
   Results were inconsistent because an array wasn’t zeroed during initialization.
   Zero the fluorometer with the same solvent used in extraction.
   George parked in space 34, zeroed the trip meter, closed and locked his car, then went back to the guard shack.
2. To disappear or make something disappear.
   Traffic on the encrypted channels used by senior Iraqi generals had peaked and zeroed, then peaked again, and zeroed again. 1997, Tom Clancy, Executive Orders, page 340
   They discovered the object code for the simulator that was DON, and zeroed it. DON — or his creator — was clever and had planted many copies, 2001, Mark Pesce, “True Magic”, in James Frenkel, editor, True Names by Vernor Vinge and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier
   If I zeroed Jack, I'd get by So I'd erased him, pretended the last few months had never happened. 2004, Anna Maxted, Being Committed, page 358